it in wealth and population, but with us this is an unwished-for consequence of the gradual change which manufactures and commerce have produced in the country, and is an evil which we tolerate because it is not very easily removed. In America

on the other hand it is a matter of deliberate and voluntary choice, resulting from the republican constitution and the prevalent system of universal suffrage. A jealousy exists throughout the agricultural districts of the influence of the larger cities, and no sooner do they begin to concentrate a considerable portion of the wealth and talent of the State, than the landholders take the alarm and vote the legislature away, some hundred or two of miles into the interior. In this In this way the Legissent from Philadelphia

lature of Pennsylvania was to Lancaster, a small town sixty-two miles off, containing about six thousand inhabitants; and subsequently to Harrisburgh, thirty-five miles farther, with only between two and three thousand. It may thus travel onward till it is ultimately stopped by the State of Ohio, or the shores of Lake Erie; and for the capital of New York, it may be necessary hereafter to search somewhere about the falls of Niagara, or the lake of a Thousand Isles.

Albany was an early Dutch settlement and the streets are filled with Dutch names, of most difficult and cacophonous utterance. The town consisted originally of a single street, skirting the bank

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of the river, which takes a slight bend here; but it subsequently extended backwards very considerably, and some of the recent streets towards the north are spacious and well built, and as usual lined with poplars. In many places there is a singular mixture of poverty and splendour. A number of the old Dutch erections are still standing; small houses of red and yellow bricks, with the gable end to the street, having a door and window in the ground floor, a single window in the next, and above it the year of their erection embossed upon the surface in huge iron figures, and the whole surmounted with an iron weathercock rusted upon the rod. There is an air of antiquity about these buildings, which is interesting in a country where antiquity is so rare. modern erections exhibit the same tasteful style which prevails in New York and Philadelphia. Two or three of the public buildings are of white marble; one of them is surmounted with a very neat dome, but in another the effect of the marble wall is sadly disfigured by the untasteful addition of a red tiled roof. The Capitol, or State House has rather a neat portico, and a dome surmounted with a statue of Justice; it stands at the upper end of a very steep but wide street, running at right angles to the river. Near the Capitol is a very neat Academy with two wings, built of reddish coloured freestone.

The

Albany, notwithstanding its commercial and

legislative advantages, does not contain above twelve or thirteen thousand inhabitants; the probability is, however, that a great increase of wealth and population will take place, when the great western canal is completed, which is to connect Lake Erie with the Hudson, joining the latter in the neighbourhood of this city."

19 In this stupendous undertaking New York has, to use the words of the North American Review," shown a spirit of enterprize, and set an example, which are above all praise. The great canal of the Lakes is an undertaking of which the most powerful government on earth might be proud. It is not more a glory to the State than an honour to the country. The canal of Languedoc, which has long been the boast of France, and perhaps we may say of Europe, is not to be compared with this."

The western canal which was begun in 1817, and is now navigable for two-thirds of its whole length, commences at Black Rock at the bottom of Lake Erie, runs parallel to the river Niagara till it joins the Tonawanta creek, makes use of its bed for eleven miles and then stretches along, with but little deviation from a straight line, till it approaches the Mohawk river, at a small town called Rome, a few miles above Utica; thence it runs parallel to the south side of the Mohawk, till it joins the Hudson near Albany. Its whole length will be 363 miles, and the country through which it passes is singularly adapted for canal navigation. After leaving Lake Erie it rises by locks 48 feet, to the summit level, and thence descends at intervals 601 feet, to the level of the Hudson. In the whole extent there are 77 locks. Two levels extend severally 65 miles and 69 miles, without locks, and between two points 240 miles apart there was not, it is said, a single yard of rock which it was necessary to remove. Connected with this astonishing undertaking, is a corresponding branch beginning at Waterford on the Hudson, eleven miles above Albany, and running northward to Whitehall, formerly called Skenesborough, at the bottom of Lake Champlain. A glance at a map of the United States will at once

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In Albany is found a singular vestige of the feudal system, probably the only one that exists in the United States. A gentleman of the name of Van Rennselaer is Superior, or 'Patroon' as he is called, of the city and a great part of the surrounding country. His sway extends over a surface

show what an enormous extent of inland trade is thus laid open to the city of New York. The Champlain canal is 61 miles long; the whole length therefore of the two will be 424 miles. Each canal is 40 feet wide at the surface, 28 at the bottom, and 4 feet deep; the locks are 90 feet long, and 14 feet broad. The estimated expense of the Erie canal was five millions of dollars, and of the other, one million; in all £1,350,000 sterling; but by an unusual result in such undertakings, it is ascertained, from what is already finished, that they will be completed for probably £200,000 less. The literary journal to which I have already alluded says that the average cost of the Erie canal per mile, is 13,800 dollars, £3105 sterling, while the cost of canals in England has generally been about £5060 sterling, per mile, notwithstanding of the difference in the price of labour.

The Commissioners for completing these canals, in their Report to the legislature of the State presented 24th February 1823, which is now before me, state that boats have actually passed upon the Erie canal for a distance of more than 220 miles, and upon the Champlain canal throughout its whole extent, from Whitehall to Waterford. They do not anticipate the final completion of the works on the Erie canal till 1824, but they expect that by June 1823, it will be navigable throughout, from Rochester near the upper end, to Schenectady fourteen miles from Albany, and that by November boats may pass completely through into the Hudson. From the portion which was completed in 1821, they had anticipated a revenue in 1822 of about 40,000 dollars, but on making up the accounts it amounted to no less than 60,446 dollars, £13,600 sterling, while the whole expense of collection, attendance, and repairs, on the same portion, was but little above £1800. VOL. I.

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about sixty miles in length, including two counties and a population of sixty or seventy thousand, of which about five thousand are his tenants. Report says that he is worth seven millions of dollars; upwards of a million and a half sterling. He is said to possess here a political influence very similar to

On the Champlain canal, during the same period, the receipts had been 3,625 dollars, £815 sterling; giving a total from the two canals of £14,415. Among the multitude of articles which passed on the Erie canal, were, 184,522 barrels of flour, 17,665 barrels of salt, 9,495 barrels of provisions, 4,872 barrels of ashes, 93,174 bushels of wheat, 46,822 bushels of water lime; the total weight merchandize transported was 35,444 tons. The market price of wheat in the upper part of the State had been raised fifty per cent., solely by the facility of transportation which had been already afforded.

The contemplation of this astonishing canal, leaves us at a loss whether most to admire the felicity of the first conception, the boldness of the undertaking, the skill and success with which it has been carried into effect, or the almost boundless prospect of commercial productiveness which it opens to view. To whom the merit of first projecting the work belongs, has now become a matter of animated controversy in America, but from the statements of various claimants, as noticed in the North American Review, it seems probable that no one individual is entitled to this honour; the proposals by two or three persons of water communications through portions of that district, resulted at last in the magnificent idea of one great canal, and Mr. De Witt Clinton, then governor of the State, was undoubtedly the most efficient instrument of promoting the undertaking. The legislature of New York by undertaking a work on their own responsibility to cost more than a million sterling, while the State revenue was under £140,000, the annual expenditure very nearly as much, and the population no more than 959,220 persons— carrying forward the work with such vigour that there is every certainty of its being finished within seven years from its commencement-have shown what LIBERTY is, and what free institutions can